The Stone-Breaker

Author(s): Nirala and Romila Thapar

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Poetry, Vol. 93, No. 4 (Jan., 1959), pp. 255-256
Published by: Poetry Foundation
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20587314 .
Accessed: 03/10/2012 01:34

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 NIRALA

NIRALA

THE STONE-BREAKER

She, a stone-breaker.
On theroad toAllahabad Imet her:
A stone-breaker.
Not theslightestshadow,
The cool ofwhich shemighthave greeted.
Her darkbody,withholdingyouth;
Eyes lowered.Thoughtsburiedin thestonesshebreaks.
Wielding theunwieldyhammer.
She strikes.
mansions.
Beforeher sprawlthetree-girt
The mountingsun
On a hot day;
The blazeof theheat,
The scorching'loo',
The earthlikecotton,seared,
With amistof dusto'erspread.
Yet anotherafternoonsaw
Her, a stone-breaker.
Lookingup, shesawme,
Saw thehouses,
But saw them with unseeingeyes:
Sawme
Throughundefeated eyes.
I knew then
What I had never known before.

255
POETRY

A moment later,herbody trembling,

There fella drop fromher sweat-washedforehead.
Turningoncemore to thestones,she said,
"I,- a stone-breaker."

theHin1dibyRoniila Thapar
Tranislatedfromii

Loo: thedryhotwind ofNorthernIndia.

256